‘His inability to understand what Wonder Woman is, or stands for, to women all over the world is unsurprising’ … Patty Jenkins and James Cameron.
Photograph: PA/PA Wire

Patty Jenkins has responded to criticisms made by James Cameron about her film Wonder Woman, saying that the director has an “inability to understand what [the character] is or stands for”.

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Cameron made his comments in an interview published in today’s Guardian, in which he calls Wonder Woman a “step backwards” and says that Hollywood’s “self-congratulatory back-patting” over the superhero movie’s success had been misguided. “She’s an objectified icon, and it’s just male Hollywood doing the same old thing! I’m not saying I didn’t like the movie but, to me, it’s a step backwards,” he said.

The director pointed to the character of Sarah Connor from his own Terminator films as a positive example of a female protagonist. “Sarah Connor was not a beauty icon. She was strong, she was troubled, she was a terrible mother, and she earned the respect of the audience through pure grit. And to me, [the benefit of characters like Sarah] is so obvious. I mean, half the audience is female,” he added.

Jenkins responded to the comments in a post on Twitter. “James Cameron’s inability to understand what Wonder Woman is, or stands for, to women all over the world is unsurprising as, though he is a great film-maker, he is not a woman,” she wrote.

Jenkins thanked Cameron for his past praise of her 2003 film Monster, which starred Charlize Theron as real-life serial killer Aileen Wuornos, but said that strong women can be portrayed in a variety of ways. “If women have to always be hard, tough and troubled to be strong, and we aren’t free to be multidimensional or celebrate an icon of women everywhere because she is attractive and loving, then we haven’t come very far have we,” she said.

“I believe women can and should be everything, just like male lead characters should be. There is no right and wrong kind of powerful woman. And the massive female audience who made the film [the] hit it is, can surely choose and judge their own icons of progress,” Jenkins added.

Wonder Woman, which stars Gal Gadot as the Amazonian superhero, was released in June and quickly attracted praise for its feminist stance. The film has also proved a global box-office hit, and is currently the second-highest grossing movie of 2017, behind Beauty and the Beast. A sequel to the film is set to be released in 2019, with Jenkins again directing.

The success of Wonder Woman represents a remarkable comeback for Jenkins, who has not directed a film-since the critically acclaimed Monster, for which Charlize Theron received the 2003 Academy Award for best actress. Jenkins herself has suggested that industry sexism may have been partly responsible for her career difficulties in the years since the release of the film.

“It’s played a part – I’m not offered things that are authentic to me very often,” she told the Guardian in May. “I did not necessarily feel that Hollywood was interested in what I wanted to do. They wanted me to do what they wanted to do.”

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter this week, Jenkins expressed a desire that the success of Wonder Woman would open doors for other female filmmakers. “I hope the success of the film will lead to change and lead to other people getting opportunities. I hope women become a diverse, easy hire for all sorts of jobs in the future,” she said.